“And no thanks probably from your master for it.” Eurotas was right.
Next morning, the slaves who received the body of Sebastian were surprised by a swarthy female figure passing by them, and whispering to them, “He is still alive.”
Instead, therefore, of carrying him out for burial, they bore him to the apartment of Irene. The early hour of the morning, and the emperor’s having gone, the evening before, to his favorite Lateran palace, facilitated this movement. Instantly Dionysius was sent for, and he pronounced every wound curable; not one arrow having touched a vital organ. But loss of blood had taken place to such a fearful extent, that he considered weeks must elapse before the patient would be fit to move.
For four-and-twenty hours Afra assiduously called, almost every hour, to ask how Sebastian was. When the probationary term was finished, she conducted Fabiola to Irene’s apartment, to receive herself assurance that he breathed, though scarcely more. The deed of her liberation from servitude was executed, her dowry was paid, and the whole Palatine and Forum rung with the mad carouse and hideous rites of her nuptials.
Fabiola inquired after Sebastian with such tender solicitude that Irene doubted not that she was a Christian. The first few times she contented herself with receiving intelligence at the door, and putting into the hands of Sebastian’s hostess a large sum towards the expenses of his recovery; but after two days, when he was improving, she was courteously invited to enter; and, for the first time in her life, she found herself consciously in the bosom of a Christian family.
Irene, we are told, was the widow of Castulus, one of the Chromatian band of converts. Her husband had just suffered death; but she remained still, unnoticed, in the apartments held by him in the palace. Two daughters lived with her; and a marked difference in their behavior soon struck Fabiola, as she became familiar with them. One evidently thought Sebastian’s presence an intrusion, and seldom or never approached him. Her behavior to her mother was rude and haughty, her ideas all belonged to the common
Triumphal Arch | Temple of Saturn. | Ascent to the Capitol. | Temple of Vespasian. | Temple of Concordia. | Mamertine Prison. |
The Northwest Side of the Forum. | |||||